Italian Taxi drivers renewed the strike in the middle of July 2006 immediately after talks more than government plans to deregulate the sector ,causing chaos in several cities.
The drivers staged several forms of protests, besieging major squares, deliberately snarling targeted traffic, blocking access to numerous airports and organizing go-slow drives, nearby media reported.
In Rome, the drivers descended on central Piazza Venezia, the city center of Rome, soon immediately after midnight after taxi unions abandoned the negotiating table.
They remained there throughout the evening and forced nearby authorities to close the square off to site visitors.
Some 60 other taxis took component in a go-slow drive from the city’s principal airport to the city and back again, causing additional difficulties.
The protests had been replicated in Naples, Turin, Genoa and Milan, exactly where drivers blocked access to the city airport.
Italian Financial Development Minister who drew up the bill contested by the drivers, stated that “they (the taxi drivers) do not personal the city.”
The matter of controversy is a government decree that intends to liberalize taxi licensing and break the virtual monopoly status of local taxi federations.
This decree orders municipal administrations to improve the number of taxi licenses issued and give out temporary permits in the course of predictably busy periods.
A single of the most controversial elements is a measure which would have allowed private firms to enter the sector by acquiring licenses and then hiring their own drivers.
Taxi licenses in Rome are regarded as private home by their holders, who trade them on when they retire or pass them on to their youngsters. The practice has created a grey marketplace in which the expense of a permit can reach as high as 200,000 euros (about 240,000 U.S. dollars).
Italy’s 40,000-robust fleet of taxis is the smallest in Europe. According to official statistics, there are 2.1 taxis per thousand inhabitants in Rome compared to 8.three in London and 9.9 in Barcellona.
The number of taxis operating in Rome is 5,820, compared to far more than 61,000 in London, almost 43,000 in New York and 17,000 in Paris, the report mentioned.
Complaints from residents and tourists more than the difficulty in obtaining taxis throughout peak hours and at evening have shot up in current years, with taxi drivers accused of deliberately restricting the quantity of cars available in order to safeguard their earnings and the values of their licenses.
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